Comparing Langston Hughes and Gwendolyn Brooks
“Poetry is the one place where people can speak their original human mind. It is the outlet for people to say in public what is known in private” (Allen Ginsberg). This is exactly what Langston Hughes and Gwendolyn Brooks did with their work. Hughes and Brooks were prominent African American poets. Langston Hughes, born in 1902, is known for his insight of black lives during the 1920’s through the 1960’s (Poets, 2). Similarly, Gwendolyn Brooks, born in 1917, wrote about political consciousness; specifically the civil rights activism of the same time period (Poetry Foundation,1). Hughes won the Harmon gold medal for literature and Brooks was the first black author to win the Pulitzer Prize. Langston Hughes and Gwendolyn Brooks were very influential poets and took similar stances through their poems. Langston Hughes was born in Joplin, Missouri. His parents divorced and he was raised by his grandmother until he was thirteen. He then went to live with his mother in Illinois and finally settled in Ohio. Hughes started writing poetry when he lived in Illinois. He went to Columbia University for one year and finished his education at Lincoln University in Pennsylvania. Before his first book was published, he had been “a truck farmer, cook, waiter, college graduate, sailor, and doorman at a
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Although Brooks had more support for her work than Hughes, he never gave up and his work is now admired. Hughes and Brooks were very influential writers during their time period and still have great influence today. They were both talented and changed many people's lives with their works. A lot of their poems were written because of the civil rights movement and sparked a lot of hope in the black community. They both used their passion of writing and ability to be published to create awareness and change many people's lives for the